This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

Job Title: Inclusion Lead
Job Location: Shire Hall
Salary: £53,937 - £57,844 per annum
Hours per Week: 37.00
Contract Type: Permanent
Closing Date: 07/07/2026
Job Requisition Number: 14387
This post is open to job share

An opportunity has arisen for a full-time permanent School Inclusion Lead within the new School Inclusion Service from Autumn 2026 following the recent Education Directorate Review.

The primary focus for this role is to ensure children achieve positive outcomes by accessing an education which is appropriate to meet their needs: the right support in the right place at the right time.

This will be achieved by supporting education settings to develop and deliver inclusive practice and environments by:

influencing and leading strategic and operational developments at both system level and whole school / Trust level, and
confidently supporting education settings to support children with additional needs – taking early action to address emerging issues and meeting statutory duties, and
supporting and challenging education settings to make effective use of resources and funding, especially to ensure the needs of more vulnerable children are understood and met.

School Inclusion Leads also have strong strategic and operational responsibility for key areas of statutory oversight & compliance, areas of system development, and core partnership working across the service and beyond. This includes leading and influencing managers, senior leaders, and teams across GCC and with wider partners.

Within this, they have one or more portfolios that they lead on for the county and so heavily influence strategic direction; for this vacant post, the School Inclusion Lead will expertly lead the portfolio for Youth Justice and vulnerable cohorts, working closely with education settings, GCC’s Youth Justice Team, Police, Social Care, Virtual School, Education Safeguarding, and other key teams and partners.

Please refer to the job profile for more detail on these aspects and for the other parts of the role.

Please Note

This post is subject to enhanced DBS clearance and safeguarding references, as well as usual references.
There will be some evening and weekend working.
You will need to be a car owner/driver, with access to a vehicle within working hours, and hold a current full driving licence valid for driving in the UK due to the significant travel across the county, including in evenings and weekends, that this role requires.

About You

To be successful, you:

will be a qualified teacher with significant senior and strategic level experience of teaching and working within an education setting;
have the experience and ability to provide effective inclusion support and challenge, at both strategic and operational levels, to senior leaders, including Headteachers and Governors / Trustees in educational settings and to other professionals;
have the credibility to provide leadership in a range of contexts and build credible relationships with schools and Trusts, including at a senior level;
meet the essential education & qualifications criteria.

You will also need to demonstrate the experience, knowledge, skills, understanding and behavioural attributes outlined in the job profile.

About Us

For all your hard work, you will receive the following:

Flexible and agile working opportunities
30 days Annual Leave (pro-rata for part-time staff)
An option to purchase 10 days of additional leave per year (pro-rata for part-time staff)
Family friendly employer offering benefits to support you and your family
Career development and qualification opportunities
Supportive, positive, and relational working environment with regular, robust supervision
Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day online or by telephone
An in-house Occupational Health service
Employee discount scheme
Cycle to Work scheme
Gloucestershire Salary Sacrifice Green Car scheme (T&Cs apply)
Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) network, dNet (disability and mental health network), and the Young Employees Network

How To Apply

If you feel you have the skills, desire, and experience required to make a positive difference in this role, we would love to hear from you. Please submit your application and personal statement today by clicking the 'Apply Now' button. You are welcome to also submit a CV but please be aware this will not form part of the shortlisting as we follow Safer Recruitment.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role prior to application, please email Lisa Meggs, Strategic Lead for Education Inclusion, in the first instance with a contact telephone number; she will then be available to ring interested candidates back for an informal discussion: Lisa.meggs@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Short-listed candidates will be contacted by email before Wednesday 15th July. Interviews will take place week commencing 20th July 2026.

Additional Information

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

School Inclusion Lead - Job Profile

The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship in this role. Candidates will need to have right to work that enables them to commit to at least 6 months' employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.

This Position is subject to an enhanced DBS check.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Applications from any Gloucestershire County Council's employees who are currently on the redeployment register or at risk of redundancy will be considered first at shortlisting stage.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

Hybrid working arrangements are available for the majority of our roles, giving teams the opportunity to work in a way that suits them, balancing service need and individual choice, with a mix of both remote and office working.

Gloucestershire County Council jobs

Inclusion Lead